Wednesday, January 20, 2016

This morning I was planning to share something different with you when I read my daughter's post on Instagram. The second I read it, I knew I wanted to share it with you. I am a proud momma and do know how blessed I am to have a 16 year old who shares her heart for God so passionately. So here is
Chatting with Audrey...

"Brothers do not slander one another." James 4:11a

Words are a powerful tool that we have been given to us to use in sharing the good news or Christ and encouraging other people. But a lot of times people use their words to tearing other people down. The verse above is talking about slandering others around you and then goes on to talk about judging. People using their words to talk badly of the people around them is not right and it does bother me. However lately it seams like every negative thing that comes out of someone's mouth is directed towards one person in particular. Themselves. I am constantly hearing both girls and guys comparing themselves to others about how they wish they could be like so and so or how they hate their (fill in the blank). You are slandering yourself! You are calling out everything "bad" in your opinion about yourself and then calling the "good" out in everyone's else and comparing the two. Is it just me, am I just hypersensitive towards this? God has made you who you are and that is beautiful, valued, loved, and treasured. Stop tearing yourself down. Stop telling yourself that you don't look good. Stop telling yourself you are a failure. Just stop. Please can we all for one week quit with the negatives towards ourselves. Quit looking in the mirror forty times before leaving the house and saying " I would look better if I (fill in the blank)" quit saying " Wow if only I looked like him/her." Or "Ugh, if I had just not had ( fill in the blank) " you may not think you do it often but if you're honest with yourself you had things to fill in the blanks with. Let's start calling out only the good. Because I promise you the things you think are bad are actually not, and there are a lot more good things than you can see for yourself.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Good Morning! I can't wait to see you ladies tomorrow night at the Christy Nockels concert.
This morning I am going to put myself in an uncomfortable spot. I am going to tell you that I have been struggling with my tongue! I will be honest and tell you it all started when someone hurt my feelings a few times. Please, know that they were not purposely mean and I don't believe they even know that they hurt me. I have really struggled to not go vent to ...everyone I know. How awful would that be! James 3:5-6 says, So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.

My desire to vent could start a fire among the body of Christ and I would be broken to know that I had started such a thing. And goodness, I am very sure that I have unintentionally hurt many people and I desire their forgiveness and understanding, which is what I should be free to give in this situation. I hope that this will be a reminder to me to always be on guard. James 3:8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.

The tongue is restless evil and full of deadly poison. Wow! Yes, it is!

Instead of trusting the words that I desire to say, I need to forgive and love them.

1 Peter 4:8 Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.

Please, be encouraged that if you are struggling with your tongue that you are not alone in the struggle. And let us remember that love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails!

Friday, January 1, 2016

Happy New Year! I hope you are as excited as I am to see how God will move in our lives this year! One of my goals this year and every year really is to memorize more scripture. I have come up with a simple idea that is fun and helpful for me and I thought I would share. I use my smartphone for everything these days, it is my calendar, my clock, my to do list...you name it I probably use it. I say all of this to bring up the point that I pick up my... phone often throughout the day and what better way to use my phone than to help me memorize scripture. I have started making fun "wallpapers" that are the first thing I see each time I pick up my phone. As soon as I see it I go over the scripture and then move on to whatever I needed to do. I am finding that this small act is helping me greatly. I use an app called Rhonna Designs to make my wallpapers but there are plenty of apps to pick from. If you would like to do this but have no idea how to do the techie part let me know and I will walk you through it😊

Have you set any goals for 2016? Do you have any great ways to help with scripture memorization?